I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about what things were like this time last year (pictured above). I'll be the first to admit that I live a stupendously blessed life. I do complain, but I know that in reality I have nothing to complain about. That being said, the holidays last year were pretty rough.
When I was about 38 weeks pregnant with baby girl, I noticed a weird bump on my cheekbone. After trying antibiotics, we realized it wasn't an infection and I was sent to the ENT. He took a look at it and said "It's something in the bone, we need a CT scan, call me after the baby's born." As in - don't worry, it's probably not serious and certainly don't make yourself crazy looking things up on WebMD. Riiiiight. Baby girl was born the day before Thanksgiving and I found myself smack in the middle of newborn care, holidays with family and, suddenly, medical stuff.
After the scan the doctor said such things as "It's probably just a harmless condition, but we'd like to do a biopsy just in case" - what he meant was "just in case it's sarcoma" - but he didn't come right out with it at first. So with a 3 week old baby, I found myself in the operating room. And then trying to recover amidst night nursings. And then battling an infection from surgery. And then sick from antibiotics. Not to mention my nasty little case of post-partum depression.
To put things in perspective, it turned out to be nothing at all (something called fibrous displacia - aka random and unexplained bone growth). My sweet parents dropped everything to stay a whole month to help with the newborn, then help with all the kids while I had my surgery. My husband was a star about keeping the house cleaned and the kids fed and everything humming along while I was either bedridden or too 'sad' to get things done. My precious babies are all healthy and happy and growing likes weeds. The P.P.D faded around the time my kids all finally learned to sleep through the night. So far, in general, we're all doing just fine this holiday.
But I can't help thinking back to sitting in that doctor's office, reading between the lines and wondering if it were going to be my very last holiday with my babies. And it made me think - none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow here on Earth. We need to be making the most of every single day we've been blessed with.
SO - that's my super long way of saying, I'm giving myself this holiday season off from the blog. I have one more giveaway that I'll be posting shortly, and I'll keep up the regular posts this week - but starting next weekend I'll be gone until January. Keep an eye out on the facebook page - I'll probably still update now and then with deals, sponsor posts (I have some great ones coming), and links, but I won't be posting regularly until the new year.
I hope that you all have a very blessed holiday, and for those of you who are having a rough time this holiday, please accept a most sincere *hug* from me. See you all in 2012!
When I was about 38 weeks pregnant with baby girl, I noticed a weird bump on my cheekbone. After trying antibiotics, we realized it wasn't an infection and I was sent to the ENT. He took a look at it and said "It's something in the bone, we need a CT scan, call me after the baby's born." As in - don't worry, it's probably not serious and certainly don't make yourself crazy looking things up on WebMD. Riiiiight. Baby girl was born the day before Thanksgiving and I found myself smack in the middle of newborn care, holidays with family and, suddenly, medical stuff.
After the scan the doctor said such things as "It's probably just a harmless condition, but we'd like to do a biopsy just in case" - what he meant was "just in case it's sarcoma" - but he didn't come right out with it at first. So with a 3 week old baby, I found myself in the operating room. And then trying to recover amidst night nursings. And then battling an infection from surgery. And then sick from antibiotics. Not to mention my nasty little case of post-partum depression.
To put things in perspective, it turned out to be nothing at all (something called fibrous displacia - aka random and unexplained bone growth). My sweet parents dropped everything to stay a whole month to help with the newborn, then help with all the kids while I had my surgery. My husband was a star about keeping the house cleaned and the kids fed and everything humming along while I was either bedridden or too 'sad' to get things done. My precious babies are all healthy and happy and growing likes weeds. The P.P.D faded around the time my kids all finally learned to sleep through the night. So far, in general, we're all doing just fine this holiday.
But I can't help thinking back to sitting in that doctor's office, reading between the lines and wondering if it were going to be my very last holiday with my babies. And it made me think - none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow here on Earth. We need to be making the most of every single day we've been blessed with.
SO - that's my super long way of saying, I'm giving myself this holiday season off from the blog. I have one more giveaway that I'll be posting shortly, and I'll keep up the regular posts this week - but starting next weekend I'll be gone until January. Keep an eye out on the facebook page - I'll probably still update now and then with deals, sponsor posts (I have some great ones coming), and links, but I won't be posting regularly until the new year.
I hope that you all have a very blessed holiday, and for those of you who are having a rough time this holiday, please accept a most sincere *hug* from me. See you all in 2012!
